Book excerpt: This study examines how political news was concealed, manipulated and distorted during the tumultuous later years of James I’s reign. It investigates how the flow of information was managed and suppressed at the centre, as well as how James I attempted to mislead a variety of audiences about his policies and intentions. It also examines the reception and unintended consequences of his behaviour, and explores the political significance of the mis- and dis-information that circulated in court and country. It thereby contributes to a wider range of historical debates that reach across the politics and political culture of the reign and beyond, advancing new arguments about censorship, counsel and the formation of policy; propaganda and royal image-making; political rumours and the relationship between elite and popular politics, as well as shedding new light on the nature and success of James I’s style of rule.